Tag Archives: College

From the author: After performing in bands throughout high school, college and thereafter (simultaneously spending three post-graduation years as a middle school history and math teacher), I began my career in audio by owning and operating a small recording studio in northeastern Pennsylvania.

My studio created and recorded advertising jingles for local businesses and also provided audio equipment for live events. When the early ‘70s gasoline crisis limited the ability of clients to travel to my studio, I had to close the business. On the upside, I was immediately hired as a sound engineer by Clair Bros., which was (and still is) the largest live audio company in the United States, spending the following 13 years as one of the chief sound engineers for the company’s road staff, traveling the world to provide the highest level of sound quality for major rock n’ roll concerts.

In 1982, wanting to get off the road, I was hired as a general manager for Mountain Productions, one of the largest scaffolding companies in Pennsylvania, and shortly thereafter, another large East Coast audio company, Maryland Sound International (MSI), asked me to open and manage its first West Coast division. I accepted the position of general manager of MSI and remained there for three years.

I was then offered the position of general manager at a competing company, ATK Audiotek, and after nine years in that role, my partners and I took ownership of ATK and my title became that of president. When I joined ATK, there were six employees. As of today, the company is in its third location, a 56,000-square-foot facility in Valencia, CA, with more than 90 employees.

ATK is recognized as a premiere audio company, counting The Super Bowl, Grammy Awards, Emmy Awards, Academy Awards, American Idol, The X Factor, The Voice and Dancing With The Stars among its many clients. After 21 years at the helm, as well as 20 previous years of live audio experience, I decided to retire and pursue both recreational and professional interests at my leisure.

On a personal note: I’ve always been interested in sound and in how every “noise” has its own unique and distinct collection of frequencies. When I was growing up, I had no idea as to how these sounds could be changed or modified. I think my fascination was due, at least in part, to being surrounded by glorious classical music.

My mother was the co-principal cellist of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and many of those string quartet rehearsals were held in the living room of our house. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the string quartet was composed of superior musicians who were playing on handmade, extremely high-caliber instruments. Couple that with great acoustics, and one has the beginnings of a great introduction to sound.

I kept asking myself: Why didn’t every string quartet sound like this one? What makes the difference? Is it the players, the surroundings, the instruments—what? I had to know. And I could not have asked for a better initiation into the world of audio.

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I was lucky that during the Summer of ‘75 Tour, my mixing skills for The Beach Boys attracted the attention of Chicago’s road manager, Jack Goudie. He liked how I achieved a balanced mix (a blend of both vocals and instrumentation) as well as the “in your face” sound that felt up close and personal.

Jack had started talking to me and asked if I’d like to become Chicago’s full-time live audio engineer. While I was still enamored with The Beach Boys, Chicago was a “current” entity who were churning out and charting at least one top 10 Billboard hit every year. Over time, Chicago would become second only to The Beach Boys in terms of Billboard singles and albums chart success.

Chicago’s popularity was huge in the mid-to-late ‘70s. They were selling out every venue regardless of its size. But the band knew, after the summer tour with The Beach Boys, that their sound was more tailored for smaller venues with better acoustics. The best venues were the open amphitheaters (called sheds then and to this day), which had covered and reserved seating for about 6,000 and open seating behind them for an additional 10,000 to 12,000. These were excellent sounding venues and were the perfect place to see a technical group like Chicago. During the summer, we started doing shed tours where the entire summer was spent at these types of venues, doing multi-night bookings of eight to 12 days at Pine Knob outside of Detroit, five to seven days at Merriweather Post outside of Baltimore, and at least two or three days each at numerous other sheds throughout the country.

A much more current photo of the author.

When I started with them, the band had just released their eighth album titled “Chicago VIII,” which contained two hits, “Harry Truman” and “Old Days.” The songs were totally different from each other, with “Old Days” being the more rock and up-tempo of the two. Most of Chicago’s songs were well balanced with jazz, rock, and fusion instrumentation, a big reason their sound became so popular. The band was also well balanced instrumentally; no single section of the group would overpower the rest of the instruments, and they always blended together as integral parts of a song.

In other groups, the brass sections were piercing and many times painful to listen to. That was partly because brass players, especially trumpeters, have to blow very hard into the instruments to hit the higher register of notes. This results in higher sound pressure levels (SPL) coming from the brass section, which is why they’re always the loudest in a band or orchestra and why they’re always placed at the rear or to the side of the stage—so they don’t overpower the audience’s ability to hear a full blend of the other instruments.

Being one of the first groups besides Blood Sweat and Tears to achieve a balanced sound gave Chicago that extra dimension of sound with brass “woven” into the “fabric of their music.” This group was exciting to listen to and exhilarating to work with.

Because Columbia College Chicago specializes in arts and media, its commencement exercises at the Chicago Theatre and the outdoor arts festival showcase preceding it are characterized by a wide variety of musical styles, ensembles and performances.

This is the 16th year Technotrix of Calumet City, IL has provided audio, stage and lighting for the graduation festivities, utilizing Martin Audio loudspeakers and subwoofers to reproduce the music with the accuracy, audio quality and even coverage demanded by the different events.

Held the day before commencement, the Manifest Urban Arts Festival is a showcase for all graduating students on three stages at various locations near the campus in the downtown Chicago Loop. The outdoor stages host jazz orchestras, rock bands, performance arts groups, musical theater, stage combat and more. Each has a Martin Audio-headed system run by students who function as front of house and monitors engineers and stage technicians.

Set up under a tent, the main stage was outfitted withfive Martin Audio W8LC enclosures a side with 12 ground-stacked WSX subwoofers, three W8C, two WS218X and one WS18X for side fill, and 10 LE12JB stage monitors. Stage 2, also under in a tent, utilized two W8C and two WSX subs a side, with six LE12JB stage monitors. The smallest stage was set up in an outdoor garden area with two Martin Audio WT3, two WS218X subs and four LE12JB stage wedges.

Kevin Kiefer of Technotrix says, “We’ve been doing the Manifest event for a number of years with a formula that just keeps getting bigger and more complex over the years as they add more bands, musicians and different types of music. The college is very happy with the sound we provide using our Martin Audio system. In fact, they said this year was the best it’s ever been. We just try to raise the bar every time out.”

The graduation ceremony takes place the next day in the 3,600-seat capacity Chicago Theatre. Featuring two small stages stacked one on top of the other stage left and right with different ensembles, and a 25-piece jazz orchestra and 20-piece gospel choir set up in the pit, coordinating and reproducing all of the music is challenging, to say the least.

“We were up to just over 100 channels of audio this year with the jazz ensembles, commencement choir and all of the small stages,” Kiefer explains. “We’d have singers and a horn section on the upper level and keyboards and rhythm section on the lower level, and they all do a variety of different numbers – a constant challenge in terms of the onstage sound. Fortunately, we had a Martin Audio monitor system to help us stay on top of the mix.

“We’ve been using Martin Audio for a long time because it differentiates us from our competitors,” he concludes. “Martin Audio speakers have a unique voice that allows us to achieve a better end result in terms of audio quality and coverage. Their speakers are accurate and consistent, which is important for events like the commencement and festival where there are so many different types of bands ranging through every type of program material. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve been doing this for 16 years.”

Because Columbia College Chicago specializes in arts and media, its commencement exercises at the Chicago Theatre and the outdoor arts festival showcase preceding it are characterized by a wide variety of musical styles, ensembles and performances.

This is the 16th year Technotrix of Calumet City, IL has provided audio, stage and lighting for the graduation festivities, utilizing Martin Audio loudspeakers and subwoofers to reproduce the music with the accuracy, audio quality and even coverage demanded by the different events.

Held the day before commencement, the Manifest Urban Arts Festival is a showcase for all graduating students on three stages at various locations near the campus in the downtown Chicago Loop. The outdoor stages host jazz orchestras, rock bands, performance arts groups, musical theater, stage combat and more. Each has a Martin Audio-headed system run by students who function as front of house and monitors engineers and stage technicians.

Set up under a tent, the main stage was outfitted withfive Martin Audio W8LC enclosures a side with 12 ground-stacked WSX subwoofers, three W8C, two WS218X and one WS18X for side fill, and 10 LE12JB stage monitors. Stage 2, also under in a tent, utilized two W8C and two WSX subs a side, with six LE12JB stage monitors. The smallest stage was set up in an outdoor garden area with two Martin Audio WT3, two WS218X subs and four LE12JB stage wedges.

Kevin Kiefer of Technotrix says, “We’ve been doing the Manifest event for a number of years with a formula that just keeps getting bigger and more complex over the years as they add more bands, musicians and different types of music. The college is very happy with the sound we provide using our Martin Audio system. In fact, they said this year was the best it’s ever been. We just try to raise the bar every time out.”

The graduation ceremony takes place the next day in the 3,600-seat capacity Chicago Theatre. Featuring two small stages stacked one on top of the other stage left and right with different ensembles, and a 25-piece jazz orchestra and 20-piece gospel choir set up in the pit, coordinating and reproducing all of the music is challenging, to say the least.

“We were up to just over 100 channels of audio this year with the jazz ensembles, commencement choir and all of the small stages,” Kiefer explains. “We’d have singers and a horn section on the upper level and keyboards and rhythm section on the lower level, and they all do a variety of different numbers – a constant challenge in terms of the onstage sound. Fortunately, we had a Martin Audio monitor system to help us stay on top of the mix.

“We’ve been using Martin Audio for a long time because it differentiates us from our competitors,” he concludes. “Martin Audio speakers have a unique voice that allows us to achieve a better end result in terms of audio quality and coverage. Their speakers are accurate and consistent, which is important for events like the commencement and festival where there are so many different types of bands ranging through every type of program material. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve been doing this for 16 years.”

Berklee College of Music, the world’s largest independent contemporary music college, has deployed Avid professional audio production solutions to help enable real-time, high-definition collaborative workflows between its newly unveiled 16-story tower in Boston and its campus in Valencia, Spain.

An ultra-high speed internet connection links Berklee’s 10-studio audio production complex in Boston, which is among the largest of its kind in the United States, to the campus in Valencia, enabling real-time collaboration on a global level – now a standard practice in many professional project workflows. For example, musicians playing on one campus can be recorded and mixed by students at the other campus.

“One of our founding philosophies is that students need practical, professional skills for successful, sustainable music careers,” states David Mash, senior vice president for innovation, strategy and technology at Berklee College of Music, and chairman of the executive board of directors for the Avid Customer Association. ”With Avid audio solutions, we can provide access to industry-standard tools that will enable them to excel in the professional world. The Avid Everywhere vision complements our commitment to giving students real-world experience with collaborative workflows on a global scale.”

For both campuses, Berklee has chosen audio solutions that are integrated with the new Avid MediaCentral Platform, giving students access to an even wider range of tools and experts, from music creation to distribution. These include Pro Tools|Software, Pro Tools|HD systems with Avid analog and digital HD interfaces, Sibelius music notation software, and two System 5 digital audio mixing consoles.

Berklee has also selected Pro Tools as the official digital audio workstation (DAW) on all laptops distributed to every incoming student as part of its Berklee Bundle Licensing Program (BBLP), fulfilling its commitment to giving students unlimited access to industry-standard tools.

“As the world’s premier music learning lab, Berklee plays a critical role in the industry by developing the music professionals of tomorrow,” states Jennifer Smith, senior vice president and CMO, Avid. “By embracing change, anticipating trends, advancing its curriculum, and adopting cutting-edge technology, Berklee sets a new standard for music education, and gives students hands-on experience with the same tools that audio professionals use to create award-winning music.”

CRESSON, PA — For the multi-use Convocation Center at Mount Aloysius College here, The Sextant Group specified Bose RoomMatch loudspeaker modules. The multi-use space was designed to host events ranging from collegiate basketball games to graduation ceremonies.

Recently, The Sextant Group, a national independent technology consulting firm specializing in the planning and design of learning, communications and entertainment facilities and systems, was contracted to specify a sound system for the new Convocation Center at Mount Aloysius College in central Pennsylvania. The Sextant Group selected an option that was new for them: a RoomMatch sound system from Bose Professional Systems.

The system consists of 17 RoomMatch loudspeakers divided into one five-speaker array (RM5505, RM7010, RM9010, RM9020, and RM12040 modules) that covers the main floor, and six separate two-module RM7040/RM9020 arrays covering the bleacher seating on both sides of the floor. The speaker arrays are all powered by five PowerMatch PM8500N amplifiers and were installed by the Pittsburgh office of Cleveland, Ohio-based SoundCom Systems.

The school’s Convocation Center is a hub of campus life, featuring a basketball court, fitness center, distance-learning classroom, dance studio and other amenities. The 2,500-seat basketball court also doubles as an event space, used for ceremonies such as graduations and other applications. The space is highly configurable – the bleachers can be rolled in and out and are divided into six different areas. Courts and gymnasiums are notoriously difficult spaces in terms of acoustics, so The Sextant Group wanted to go the extra mile in terms of the sound quality and versatility of the system – that’s where the RoomMatch system came in.

“We wanted this space to be able to develop a lot of energy and keep it tightly focused on the seating areas,” explains Mark Gillis, Principal Consultant at The Sextant Group. “We wanted the sound to really have an impact, to help events here really generate a high level of excitement.”

“In addition to making the right decisions in terms of acoustical treatment, we wanted a system that would allow us to very precisely aim the sound and keep it over the seating areas, but at the same time we also wanted to give the school a full-range sound system that works well for music as well as speech,” says Joe Hammett, Systems Designer at The Sextant Group. “Too often, good sound is value-engineered out of spaces like this, with the PA really just suitable for the narrow range of the voice. This system needed to also cover music, which adds to the experience, and keep the sound where we needed it. The RoomMatch system was definitely the right choice.”

The result has been extremely satisfying. In fact, The Sextant Group is in the process of specifying a Bose RoomMatch system for another college multi-use center, this one seating 5,000. “Mount Aloysius now has sound that matches what schools in the top-tier divisions and even major-league arenas have,” says Gillis. “Music and speech both sound great, and the intensity of the sound makes a huge difference in the energy of the place. The RoomMatch system really was able to do it all.”

Santa Monica College is currently seeking talent for the musical “Locals Only.”
“Locals Only” is a multimedia one-act musical. The school says, “Set in present time, primarily in the Venice Beach boardwalk area, the show tells the story of a surfer and the girl he meets.”
Several lead and supporting roles are being cast and auditions are being held June 18 and 19 in Santa Monica, Calif.
For more details, check out the casting notice for “Locals Only” here, and be sure to check out the rest of our Los Angeles audition listings!

Students at London’s Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance have used an Avolites Sapphire Touch and Tiger Touch II to stage a concert as part of a specialist module on lighting design for live music.

Luther College in Croydon, Australia recently undertook a major audio upgrade of their school chapel, appointing South Melbourne-based Factory Sound to install a new sound reinforcement system based on Adamson Systems loudspeakers.

The most dominant visual feature in Luther College’s Chapel is the floor-to-ceiling leadlight window behind the altar, which drove the topology and layout of the speaker system. The sanctuary is horseshoe shaped with a two-tiered seating plan that seats 400.

“The school’s leadership team were very specific in keeping sight lines to the leadlight absolutely clear from any seat in the house” commented Daniel Thomas, Factory Sound’s head of installation. “This meant that conventional arrays were out of the question, and we had to strike a compromise between keeping the loudspeakers out-of-sight and maximizing the direct-to-reverberant ratio.”

“There was up to 4 seconds RT60 at low frequencies and limited hanging points, so it was definitely a challenge. The final design was settled after detailed EASE acoustic modelling, and several discussions with Luther College’s Music, Finance and IT staff about ways to maximize their budget for the project.”

A mono pair of Adamson Point 12 cabinets fit just out-of-sight above the timber cloud above the altar, and serve as the acoustic focus of the system. Directly above hangs a single Adamson Metrix Sub for LF reinforcement – again, virtually invisible from below. A ring of seven pairs of Adamson Point 8 loudspeakers hangs from the ceiling grid, serving the two seating tiers.

The Point 12 is recommended where high SPL is needed with a moderate amount of low frequency energy. The 12” ND12-L 8Ω Neodymium Kevlar driver and 1.4” exit HF driver mounted on an Adamson fiberglass waveguide give the Point 12 remarkable power.

Similar to the Point 12, the Point 8 is loaded with a single Adamson 8” ND8-LM 16Ω Neodymium Kevlar driver and 1” Exit HF driver mounted on an Adamson fiberglass waveguide. The point 8’s rotatable 90° x 60° waveguide offers a defined coverage pattern which was exactly what the chapel system required.

“The school is very happy with the result,” says Thomas. “The venue now caters to everything from sermons and musical theatre to concert bands and rock ensemble performances and everything in between.”